Start Your Business Start-up Now

There are innovators, there are retailers, but the link between the two, the sales force in which the communication channels have resided, has atrophied. The economy needs to recover, and we have people innovating, and retailers groping out changing customer demand.

The missing link is the sales process, lost with the two generations that went in F I R E . Selling establishes the rationale for the buy, something necessary when money is scarce. When banks lend credit, not money, the delusion is there is no scarcity.  All can be afforded, no selling is necessary, just order-taking.  Salesmanship atrophied.

Integral to the sales process is the feedback mechanism, which communicates to the innovators what demand the retailers have discovered (or is at least worth testing with new offers.)

Sales is not my thing, but I think I am an excellent consumer of good salesmanship, and therefore qualified to teach just that.

Along the lines of renaissance sales reps have re-organized themselves in Seattle into a new rep association....  I've been watching them and the moves seem right.  I am seeing a resurgence of the boutique, the shopping preference for the high-maintenance.

With the fax machine anyone could order flowers from Colombia, and have them here in 24 hours....  but local flowers are competitive.  A retired flower shop owner told me there is a resurgence in the 4am flower auction, a small biz staple 40 years ago.

Business start-up based on customers is my unique approach.  If you wish to thrive in spite of the coming crash, don't hoard gold, stock up on guns 'n ammo, or bury food supplies.  No!  Start a business.

I've been teaching that for 35 years on the side, and I am highly rated by past participants for content, pace and humor, with (so far) unlimited follow-up.

There are several options, live or online classes, for you to consider here.  eMail me if you have any questions.

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Next New Concept Testing V Food Export Seminar

New Hope has trademarked (ungh!) the tern "Next" (really?!) They offer a "Concept Test" to tell you if your B2B initiative will be successful "before you invest."  This is not possible I think, but they are giving 20% off through October.  Maybe because it is not possible.

It's not possible for three reasons: 

A. A study can never predict the future.  Coca Cola spent one billion dollars circa 1985 introducing new Coke, only to have the most famous fail in marketing history.  Show me statistically significant proof of the "Concept Test" and "Success."  I say it cannot be there.

B. The study is invalid to begin with, since the population surveyed is consumers, and the customers for B2B are businesses.  What consumers say, and what they will do with their money, are two different things.  The businesses to whom they should address their surveys will say "Who knows? Gotta test it."  I am sure the reason they do not survey B2B customers is any such survey would be impertinent to the sales process.

C. To be successful, you must do the work.  This is so self-evident, in the thirty plus years I have been lecturing on the side I have never said "I will make you successful."  I say only, "here is what I learned, here are the steps."  The steps are valid and reliable. Whether or not someone takes the steps is not up to me. I can only offer email support to those who are taking the steps and may have questions or need more coaching.   

I have never made anyone successful, at best I can save entrepreneurs time and money getting to their goals.  Indeed, you can get to your goals with virtually no money and little time, if the steps are followed.   If anyone says they can do more, I'd like to see how.  (And if their claim is false, I can quickly see how too!)

I guess I have two advantages:  I don't teach for a living, so I don't need to oversell this; and my entire career is trade for a living, so I know what you actually have to do to get customers.

The only way to know what a market thinks is go to your customers, B2B, and ask for an order.  If no order, then you have practical feedback upon which you can act.  You spend your time and money on adjusting based on what professional buyers say, not consumer surveys.

At some point in the game you must face a customer, even if you have paid your Next Concept Test fees.  There is no reason why the first thing you do cannot be face a customer.  Indeed, there are easy tactics to get in front of buyers before you put a dime into your idea.

You have to turn over a lot of information before you find out what they charge for the New Hope Next Concept Test, so I have no idea.  I bet is more than the $89 I charge for a seminar to find customers, that goes to customers first.  And I just need an email and a billing address, email for the course, billing address to bill you after the course.

Yes, my seminar is about exporting food and beverage, either as a principal or an agent, but the tools tactics and attitudes work anywhere, anytime.  Even domestically.  Indeed, in one part of the seminar you will compare domestic to overseas potential.  Check out assessing domestic potential based on current sales.

My seminar is online and open to anyone on planet earth, and indeed, I get people from all over.  I lead the live, online seminar. Your next opportunity to attend is:

Tuesdays, 6-7pm Pacific Time, Oct 11-Nov 1, 2016.

And you can register now and I'll bill you later, after the course begins.

http://www.johnspiers.com/Export_Agriculture/Register%21.html

Get in front of customers first.  Then adjust as necessary.

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At Which Trade Show to Exhibit?

In business, there is only one opinion that matters, and that is the opinion of your target customer.  So which trade show?  Ask you customers...

Orandi said he’s been to a lot of trade shows, but after speaking with larger buyers like Costco and Trader Joe’s at Thursday’s Expo, he said the Fresno Food Expo is an ideal event for local growers.

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/living/food-drink/article92525362.html#storylink=cpy

Instead of wasting time and money guessing which shows, he could have asked Trader joe's and Costco first.  Just how you get in front of those buyers I teach in my seminars.

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Outboarders and Suitcasers

Here is someone I would remonstrate with, for his foolishness:

An outboarder is a company that should be exhibiting who decides to sponsor their own event during the show without the consent of the organizer. A suitcaser can be defined as a non-exhibiting supplier who attends the show and tries to conduct business at the show. Both of these types of parasites are trying to hitchhike on the franchise of the organizer.
For most shows, the bulk of the revenue comes from booth space sales and sponsorships by exhibitors. Outboarders and suitcasers prey on attendees without paying the freight.

"Prey"on attendees?  You mean attendees are forced to deal with these people, attendees cannot simply ignore anyone they do not care to meet?

One thing the IPPE (International Production & Processing Expo) has done over the last several years is to put a clause in all of the hotel contracts mandating that ALL requests for meetings, hospitality suites and functions during the show be approved by the show organizer.
In the contract there is a clause that failure to do so will implement a redress penalty of 10 times the price of a minimum sized booth (10’ X 10’, grossing about $20/square foot). This means that if the organizer finds out about an unauthorized meeting, it will cost the hotel in question $20,000.

If.  Delusional!  People rent hotel rooms and have meetings all the time, unrelated to any show.  I am sure if a show took up every room in the hotel, including all conference rooms, the hotel would comply, but at that point it would be moot.  But the never do. I am also sure hotels will gladly humor this idiot and say, "Yes, we will check with you first on ALL meetings of any kinds."  And then do nothing. Do you think some dairy salesman is going to agree to have his meeting approved by some cracker with something called the IPPE?

The ideal is ultimately to exhibit at a trade show.  Short of the ideal, there are many steps on the way, only two of which are called outboarding and suitcasing.  Shows ought to welcome and embrace and facilitate these people instead of entertaining some delusional ranter.

The inevitable is the ideal.

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Trade Show Metrics

I like metrics, so when I read this I was delighted:

Meeting with a prospect at a tradeshow costs an average of $142. Meeting that same prospect at a his or her office costs $259. Social media and online channels have overtaken more traditional face-to-face meetings, but tradeshows can still pay off for those willing to work to get the most out of their investment.

These are averages and you can always beat them.  My metric for trade show participation is the show must generate in sales ten times the cost of the event. A $10,000 show cost must gain $100,000 in orders at the show.  If not, you must beef up the more effective (if slower) marketing efforts, before going to shows (or lower costs of the show by JV a booth, etc.)

The assertion rearding social media overtaking "more tradtiional" is unwarranted. Cite the studies.  CErtainly far more people waste time on facebook, etc than sell then ever before, but it is no replacement for results.  People who have Smart Phones have no idea what they are missing.

(If the "costs $259" citation link does not work, here it is...  http://www.sageworld.com/blog/index.php/2015/05/14/suppliers-18-powerful-statistics-on-the-value-of-exhibiting-at-tradeshows/   )

This paragraph is problematic, a false dilemma...

"If I find out...you're not a qualified person for my booth, I don't say, 'All right, Kerry, you're not qualified, you're not going to be interested in our product, see you later,' because you'll have a bad negative experience with me, and you'll talk to someone who's qualified later and say, 'You shouldn't talk to company ABC, they were rude to me.'"

The choice is not keep talking to someone who is wasting both of your time, the choice is either end the conversation or waste time.  You can end the conversation nicely or not, and nicely is to hand the person the LCL MOQ FOB and welcome them to come back when they can place an order.

I have a .pdf with a decision tree on when to attend a trade show to sell, and in what capacity at what level.  Feel free to email me for a copy.

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New Portland Oregon Import Export Start Up Seminar

If you live in the Portland, Oregon area, on Saturday, April 23, 2016, I will offer an all-day intensive international trade start-up seminar at Portland Community College.  You will be taken through finding customers, suppliers, developing product, lining up the finance, logistics and legal structure all in a one day seminar highly rated by participants for content, pace and humor.  Enroll now!

Write down the CRN 24328 of your selected class to register.

CRN	Campus / Bldg / Rm	Time	Days	Dates
24328	CLIMB Ctr / CLIMB / 303	09:00 AM-04:50 PM	Sa	23-Apr-2016 thru 23-Apr-2016
	Instructor: John W Spiers  Notes: One hour lunch break.  Tuition: $79.00 Fees: $0.00

http://www.pcc.edu/enroll/registration/non-credit-registration.html

Please bring recorders or anything you like, I provide handouts and after-class follow-up by email.  I look forward to meeting with you personally!

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Pick A Show, Any Show

For your start-up, a time deadline is a great motivator.  For a business, customers are the most important thing, and design (getting the product or service right) is the hardest thing.  A trade show puts you in the middle of the competition, and fires up your motivation, imagination and builds confidence as you realize "I can do this".  Not to mention the people you meet.

Pick a world class city, that is easy to get to and easy to work in.  I choose Hong Kong.  Sure, China is the 800 pound gorilla at Hong Kong shows, but for that same reason traders from Chile, Botswana, Jordan, Germany, Singapore, Mexico are all there too.  You can "go spartan" in Hong Kong and be clean, safe and healthy, or you can find rooms as expensive as anything in London or Tokyo.    Hong Kong's unique system allows for all at once.

Then there is the endlessly fascinating parts of Hong Kong, for example, competing private companies issue the currency.  You'll have several hundred Hong Kong dollars in your wallet, and several different designs, since they come from different private companies.  That in itself is work a long study.

All the big acts on World Tour stop in Hong Kong, last week Madonna had a couple of shows. Imagine the story of seeing Madonna in Hong Kong while you were there.  Or Yo-yo Ma or whoever your favorite happens to be. And then the Museums!

Hong Kong has an amazing selection of shows put on by many organizations.  I've long admired (going on 40 years now) the professionalism of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council and the shows they put on.  Wine, fashion, jewelry, film, housewares, you name it.

So pick a show, note the dates, start organizing a trip around a visit.

http://www.hktdc.com/info/trade-events/EX/en/Exhibitions.htm

Some people like a guided tour to such a new thing, and I offer that here.

But Hong Kong is so accessible, professional, safe and so on, you can do it on your own if you like.  Either way, discover Hong Kong soon!

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USA has the Best Food in the World, and the Worst.

And Russia just announced it plans to usurp USA in the "best" category, leaving the worst for USA to produce and sell.  Here again, the breathtakingly stupid "sanctions" on Russia for defending itself against USA-led NATO destabilzation in the Ukraine have had unintended consequences.  Since Russia may not import as much, it is finding as prices rise on cheap, subsidized imports, it can perform "import substitution" with locally produced food that is better and cheaper than the imported stuff.

Clearly picking on GMO is to exclude the cheap stuff, linked above:

According to official statistics the share of GMO in the Russian food industry has declined from 12 percent to just 0.01 percent over the past 10 years, and currently there are just 57 registered food products containing GMO in the country. The law ordering obligatory state registration of GMO products that might contact with the environment will come into force in mid-2017.

Aside from being harmful as designed, GMO is prima facie dumping since it is sold for far less than the costs of massive subsidies and tax breaks necessary to maintain it.  Normally the smart tactic is to let a coountry run itself into poverty dumping goods into your market, but in this case, GMO is not "good."

I was presenting at a conference when the expert following me disagreed with me sharply on one point: USA has a worldwide reputation for food wholesomeness and safety.  She noted the European protests, street fighting, over the TPP and food trade rule changes coming up, not to mention China regularly burns entire shipments of USA commodity foods for its variance from order, etc.

Yes, but...  my topic is small specialty food, and hers was Big Ag. USA can produce the best, and the worst.  There is much to fear from subsidized GMO: suppressed research, obesity and diabetes links, hypertension links, and just the crazy situation in which so much production is centered in so few hands.  Capitalism is collectivization with a dollar sign.

the pendulum is swinging back. Good food is hard work, and the division of labor suggests we need producers and marketers.  For my part I will train a cohort of sellers of food world wide with a with to step by step find customers which will warrant expanded production, and then lower prices.  For those who are uninitiated in free markets, lowering prices is always good, since costs drop faster than prices, so profits widen as you drop your prices to customers more slowly than your costs drop.

For those interested in learning how to sell food worldwide, I have an online, live course starting Tuesday Eve. If you cannot make the live sessions complete transcripts are sent out.  You will be taken through the steps of targeting a country for export sales, developing your offer, finding the actual decision maker for a sale overseas, and then how to add science to your passion and joy to get valid and reliable results in export sales. As you will see from the class website, the course is an hour a week for four weeks:

http://www.johnspiers.com/Export_Agriculture/Welcome.html

Winter Session  2016 

Tuesday 1/26-2/16/2016   Four Sessions

Section One ~ 6 PM to 7 PM Pacific Time

(This would be 7 PM to 8 PM Mountain, 8 PM to 9 PM Central, 9 PM to 10 PM Eastern)

The website above invites you to register, do not register!  Simply email me with the your name billing address and I will bill you later for the course.

john@johnspiers.com

If you have any questions, let me know...

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Ten Pick-up Lines - Trade Shows

Salesmen have both the funniest and crudest jokes, whereas I prefer a wittier variety:

What do computers and air-conditioners have in common?

They both work fine until you open windows.

Anyway, at a trade show your booth is the approach steps in the sales process, so you go straight into the qualification step, the second step.

If we assume you’re operating in a person-to-person selling business, wouldn’t you be more successful with more positive qualified engagements than just badge scans? And wouldn’t you have more of these interactions if you knew how to stop a person, engage, and qualify that person quickly?

The article covers the top ten, for your edification.

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EZ Credit the Last 40 Years is Over. Next?

I like how the author puts scare quotes around money, an indication people are thinking more clearly.  But more to the point, junk bonds are big business means of finance roll-up operations, and the classic scorched-earth tactic that facilitated the "get big or get out" mantra of USA economic policy.

The most important outbreak or story of 2015 had to have been the junk bond reversal. It combined all the major elements of what investors and economic agents are both fearing and, at one point in the past anyway, hoping. It is the confluence of finance, “dollars”, liquidity and economics with or without recovery and the best scenario. The FOMC raising rates is supposed to confirm the brightest outlook, which would only lead to more extension in the credit cycle, and yet junk bonds traded as if the worst were only just around the corner. It isn’t so much the selloff, though that is obviously important, but rather how increasingly the selloff is being treated as permanent.

Walmart, Petco, O'Reilly, Walgreens, Old Navy, Office Depot, Union 76, Vons/Safeway/Dominicks, Lowes, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, McDonald's and so on all used junk bonds at critical junctures.  But now with the massive numbers of store closings in the big box field, who wants junk bond finance?  Just what project would you want to finance?

More to the point, to use bonds is to lend your credit (not money, anymore), to reassign your tallies to unlikely-to-succeed projects.  Bondholders are supposed to have first place in liquidation, but when the auto-industry burned the bondholders in 09, that is not so sure anymore. In capitalism, the "rule of law" is entirely relative.  In any event, it would be good for people who once used junk bonds to be interviewed now as to why not anymore?  Specifics...

The upshot is the less business these people do, not dollar for dollar, but certainly in some positive relation, the more small business and specialty will do.  But never think online is a viable means to market or do business, that is proven unworkable.  Catalog and price list, sure. Self-service check-out, to be sure.  But not the basis of the business.  And on a story about store closures, there is this in Forbes:

But a fresh crop of online-only merchants are expected to make their mall debuts this year, building on a trend that gained momentum in 2014, as beauty subscription serviceBirchbox, for example, opened a store, while hot e-commerce eyewear shop Warby Parker opened more stores.

Just so.  With only 6% of sales taking place online, serious biz people are looking at the other 94%, brick and mortar operations.

I expect small regional trade shows to reinvigorate.

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Trade Show Expense Budget

Your success depends on trade shows, for they are the most efficient test of your hypothesis.  Yet, they need not be too expensive to attend.  Where most others are forking over $20,000 for a show, you can have your own booth all-in for $8000, or share one for $2000, or get a sales rep and pay nothing.  I have a .pdf decision tree on this, and feel free to email me for that.  Here is an excellent and comprehensive list of trade-show related expenses, for which to budget.

There is much more to a comprehensive trade show exhibit budget than you’d expect. In order to stay within budget and avoid the potential cost overruns, let’s take a closer look at some line items that must be considered in a well-planned trade show budget: 

What I like about this list is since it is so thorough, you can wittingly decide what not to spend, and then decide how to cover that decided lack.

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Macau Trade Show Biz Down 20%

One of the games of the trade show business is to sell the "national pavilion."  In this all of the sellers from a nation gather in one expensive but highly subsidized booth.  The Show hosts clean up, and the exhibitors get huge subsidies so it seems like a win win except for the taxpayers and, one would assume, for the competitors who do not get the subsidies.

Well, two problems for those who take the subsidies:

1.  Consistently over the years,  one of the top three complaints of buyers is exhibitors in the conglomerated national booth are out of what would be their natural location in a trade show, making the appointment inconvenient for the buyer.  Further, given competition imperatives, having a country's buyers and sellers congregating leads to constraints not otherwise present.

2.  Yes, the subsidies can run an generous 50% rebate on all expenses, but 50% of $20,000 is $10,000, and you can stage an effective booth and travel etc for far cheaper than that on your own.

Governments have run out of credit, and have started cutting back.  Very bad news for those whose business model depends on such subsidies.  For those who never sought out the subsidies, it will not matter much one way or another.

Let the cuts begin.

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More Good Trade Show Advice

I disagree with the stated goal,

Our goal: to get email addresses and permission to contact.

but the writer goes on to otherwise give very good advice...

I also say yes, give them literature; you LCL MOQ FOB.  One sheet fits all.

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Booth Design: Less is More

You never want swag hand-outs in the booth, and this writer intimates what I say, and that is make you give-away useful, like your LCL MOQ FOB in writing.  He has a good overall set of principles here.  The booths I design follow these principle.

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When? Another Crash Indicator

Trade Shows are tracked for performance and o verall they are doing very well, just like in...  2007?!?! 

After a big increase in the first quarter of this year, the performance of the business-to-business trade show industry, as measured by the Center for Exhibition Industry Research’s Total Index, remained relatively strong during the second quarter of 2015, posting a year-on-year gain of 3.8 percent.
This growth is the second highest rate since the second quarter of 2007 and also marked the 20th consecutive quarter of year-on-year growth.
"The second-quarter results are very promising,” said CEIR Economist Allen Shaw, Ph.D., Chief Economist for Global Economic Consulting Associates.

Well, the eocnomy tanked after that.  And trade shows  had a hard time.  But a 25% decrease in economic activity means ther eis still 75% going on.  It all gets down to running a trade show booth right, something I will be teaching this year long with my other courses.

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Trade Shows: IBM v Start-up

This fellow is ex-IBM sales, once the model for all serious sales professionals, indeed, Ross Perot was an ex-IBM top performer.  So when he talks of trade lead management, time to listen, here is his summary:

Here’s a paraphrasing of the 5 best practices:

• Follow-up FAST

• Focus on the most promising prospects

• Do your homework before qualifying

• Don’t rush the buyer

• Squeeze more out of each show’s list

Now this is all good stuff if you are selling the known standard, the IBM computer.  We are not selling that, we are selling a market test, initially, of a new item.  So the differences are:

There will be no follow-up, sell on the spot or if not, find out why not.  (You can save the "no's" for later to make a sales approach again later IF you change your offer to respond to valid and reliable objections.  So any follow up will be delayed by design.

Everyone at the show should be buying, and the focus is on those who either place and order or offer reasons why not.  At the show you are quickly working through prospects to get feedback.  All encounters should be brief and focussed.

Do your homework on the buyer only after they reorder.

Rush the buyer.  "I came here to sell, why did you come to the trade show?"  They either place the order they need, or if not, why not?

The "yes, but no reorder" and "no's" can be reworked, but only if and when their collective response offers valid and reliable science upon which you might base change.

Passion gets you oriented, joy gets you going, and science gets you accomplishment.

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Start-up Trade Show Advice

Finally a trade show advice article that is spot on!  I'll expand on two points:

“The main trick is to be able to judge body language and to listen,” Kate stresses. “If a customer says no verbally, or their body language says no, then thank them for their time and move on to the next potential customer or client.”

No to what?  The sales process is approach, qualification, agreement on need...  body language is fine, but you can elicit specific responses to find out if this is a buyer (ready willing and able) and if not, get rid of them.  If so, then they either place the order, or if not, for what valid reason?  Anything less than this is a waste.

To get the most out of your time at trade shows, always set targets that you and your staff can work towards, whether that’s data collection, PR, sales, or sampling targets.

The point of a trade show is trade, sales.  Your targets should be sales, and if not why not.  Sales and market feedback.

Incentivize the press?

“We offered VIPs and press members free spa treatments and VIP goody bags at the show. If your company does not have physical products to give to VIPs, you could always consider buying in gifts from third parties that fit with your brand,” Kate recommends. “For example, if you are a travel agent you could put together a beach bag gift with travel essentials in it, like a branded beach ball and sun cream.”

Write a half dozen articles, unsigned, about your company and line.  The news is your LCL MOQ FOB.  Put a $50 bill in the envelope with the article.  Hand the 9x12 envelope to the writer visiting your booth and say there is another one of these if this gets published.

The writer will figure it out, put his name on your article, and you get invaluable press for $100.

Who wants swag? People need money.  Writers aren't paid much at all.

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Trade Show and Social Media

Greyhound, the long distance bus ride company, got into the trade show business a long time ago for the simple reason that below those seats is a lot of shipping space and good revenue moving trade show exhibits and priority items, which perhaps surprisingly, Greyhound quite reliably delivered.  So Greyhound Exposition Services becomes GES.  You'll see them at all the shows.

They know there stuff, but outside their expertise their managers can be quite wrong, as in this instance:

After years of research, testing, and production, a trade show might be the first in-person interaction between customers and your product. The show represents an invaluable opportunity for you to observe how customers approach, think about, and use the product. What do they say about your product? How do they interact with it?
Unlike radio, TV, or the Internet, trade shows provide live feedback from consumers. The feedback can be varied, including focus groups during the show, pre-show surveys, at-show exit surveys, or post-show interviews. Be prepared to invest time in gathering feedback. Then, leverage the customer testimonials on social media, in print and online media campaigns, and in TV ads.

Terrible error if anyone spent years if research and testing on a product and only then presents it at a trade show for feedback.  To be fair his example is pharmaceuticals, a false-economy industry that necessarily takes too much time and spends too much to produce too little.  but instad of highlighting an exception, he should note that "the 15 minutes you came up with an idea to test, based on customer feedback, should be tested at a show."

Yes, with your salespeople telling all buyers at the show "NO!" to all requests for changes, so during the 4 days of the show you have 200 solid responses, with variables controlled, so you can apply science to developing the product lines of which you are passionate and have joy in producing.

200 sales pitches, 200 responses, controlled for variables, golden data from which to get to "enough orders to cover the suppliers minimum in a workable amount of time profitably" ... which is the basis for including an item in your line.

The rest of the article is about social media.  Reject the ideas.  Unless advertising and social media provably returns 10 times the cost (5 times in 30 days and another 5 times in 90 days) then do not spend the time or money.  Simple as that.  Read Ogilvy on Advertising or be ignorant of good advertising consumption.

Ogilvy on Advertising  Click on this if no image below...



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Trade Shows In A Changing World

Trade shows have become big, bloated affairs, attracting non-buyers with swag, and charging too much to do too much.  The EZ mal-Credit economy has allowed people with nothing to really offer talk to people with no customers and then of course there are the subsidized booths which congregate people by country instead of offerings.  This is breaking down especially in the hyper-specialized shows.  Now comes a new show selling everything in one show  Is this a regeneration of the trade show going on?  From Miami:

The newest addition, the Miami Wholesale Show, just completed its second year and is heading into its third. The Asia America Trade Show is from September 27-29, 2015 and the Miami Wholesale Show is from May 26-28, 2016. Both shows will be held at the Miami Beach Convention Center, with an average of 6,000 attendees, more than 224 exhibitors and over 65,000 square feet of exhibition area. For 2016, exhibition space will be doubled. Major companies such as Kole Imports have been exhibiting for five years, as well as many others. Asia America is the major wholesale show in South Florida, getting bigger every year. “We will be setting new attendance records over the next few years. We invite wholesalers and distributors to come experience our shows,” said Michael Finocchiaro, President. “We have got big names that have been with us over the last six years developing the market, and now they have established a large foot-hold. As a result, they have acquired many new accounts.”

Occupy Hong Kong, was disruptive of business in Hong Kong, but apparently not its trade shows:

The Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention Industry Association (HKECIA) surveyed organisers of 101 trade shows with net floor space larger than 2,000sqm.
“In 2014, exhibiting company numbers, visitor numbers, and rental revenue generated from exhibitors were all positive, especially for exhibiting companies and visitors from outside Hong Kong,” said HKECIA chairman Javed Khan. “This is an excellent testimony of the trust that is placed in our city’s capabilities in a time of global economic uncertainty.”

Learn to work trade shows well.

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Cash and Carry B2B Trade Shows?

this is interesting

Featuring the biggest and best selection in the west with no long wait for delivery, this show offers order-writing and immediate delivery of merchandise available in several product categories

WHEN: Friday, October 16 - Sunday, October 18, 2015
WHERE: Oregon Convention Center
777 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Portland, OR 97232
HOURS: Friday & Saturday | 10 AM - 5 PM; Sunday | 10 AM - 4 PMMORE INFO: www.candcshows.com | 800.318.2238 or 678.285.3976

Cash and carry?  I wonder how it will do.  When credit is a rational imperative, mve the trade shows to cash and carry?    Well, it's an experiment.

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